Editorial: Secrecy undermines confidence in move to dump Auditor General John Doyle

Committee should explain why it chose not to reappoint AG to a second term

John Doyle has been an outstanding auditor general. He has identified some serious issues, most recently uncovering the almost unbelievable mess in the running of the internal affairs of the B.C. legislature.

Photograph by: Bruce Stotesbury
, Victoria Times Colonist file photo

The principle that personnel issues should be discussed in camera by politicians has merit in most cases. But the privacy concerns that drive that principle should not be paramount in the case of the auditor general and other parliamentary watchdogs.

MLAs have an inherent conflict of interest when they are judging the performance of the men and women they hire to monitor their own work. That conflict cannot be avoided. But the potential harm it creates can be reduced through public scrutiny. As it turns out, the chair of the committee that decided in secret not to reappoint B.C. auditor general John Doyle to another six-year term may also have had a personal conflict in addition to the generic conflict all MLAs share: Liberal MLA Eric Foster had been cited in one of Doyle’s audits for a lack of documentation for the money spent renovating his riding office.

We haven’t been told why Doyle isn’t being reappointed. The committee chair says the appointment is a personnel matter and by law cannot be discussed in public.

In the absence of an explanation, we are left to infer. And what we come up with doesn’t look good, either for its optics or as a matter of public policy.

As a matter of optics, it looks like the Liberal government is punishing Doyle for being a persistent thorn in its side. Doyle is still in court trying to force the government to release information on its controversial decision to pay $6 million to cover the legal costs of the defendants, David Basi and Robert Virk, who pleaded guilty in a political corruption trial.

For a government heading into an election, creating the impression that it is silencing an informed critic won’t play well with voters.

As a matter of public policy, the principle should be the same as articulated by U.S. President Barack Obama this week, who said that in deciding who to appoint as secretary of defence and the head of the CIA: “My No. 1 criteria in making these decisions is simple: Who is going to do the best job of securing America?”

Doyle has been an outstanding auditor general. He has identified some serious issues, most recently uncovering the almost unbelievable mess in the running of the internal affairs of the Legislature.

Along the way, he has ruffled a lot of feathers. That is his job. There are thousands of public servants who are paid to quietly go along with politicians and senior civil servants. We need an auditor general who isn’t afraid to create some heat.

Has he been confrontational to a fault? The government, and even the NDP on occasion, have dismissed some of his criticisms as being disagreements between accountants.

Maybe some are. But others — Doyle’s refusal to allow the province to list debt from the $3.3-billion Port Mann Bridge as self-sustaining, for example — reflect the kind of issues that have led to the downfall of previous governments that have used a fun-with-figures approach to present a rosier view of their own performance.

By all appearances, the Liberals on the committee have decided they don’t want Doyle reappointed because he has embarrassed them one time too many. Like the Liberals, the New Democrats aren’t talking, but party leader Adrian Dix says he expects his followers toed the party line and supported the reappointment of Doyle for a second term.

If there is a better reason for jettisoning Doyle, one that isn’t so self-serving, the members of the committee should be able to tell us what it is. If they are prevented by law from doing so, as they claim, the law should be changed.

Doyle and other parliamentary watchdogs work fully in the public eye. Any issues MLAs have about their performance deserve equally public scrutiny.

John Doyle has been an outstanding auditor general. He has identified some serious issues, most recently uncovering the almost unbelievable mess in the running of the internal affairs of the B.C. legislature.

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